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Informist, Thursday, Aug 22, 2024

NEW DELHI – In his first visit to Jammu & Kashmir after the announcement of Assembly elections, Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi today pitched for statehood for Jammu & Kashmir and restoration of the "democratic rights of people" in the region.

Gandhi also said the Congress party would contest Assembly elections in an alliance, while asserting that the alliance would be based on the suggestions of the party's local leadership, and would keep in mind the sentiment of party workers.

Gandhi, along with Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge, was addressing party workers in Srinagar, and then the media.

"It is our priority in the Congress Party and also in the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance to restore statehood to Jammu & Kashmir as soon as possible. We had expected that this would be done prior to the elections...We are hoping that the rights of the people of Jammu & Kashmir, democratic rights will be restored to them," Gandhi said.

"Union territories have become states, but it is the first time that a state has become a Union Territory. So, we are very clear in our national manifesto as well that it is a priority for us that the people of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh get their democratic rights back," he said.

Addressing party workers, Gandhi said he had a special relation – a blood relation – with the people of Jammu & Kashmir. "We call you workers, but you're a family to us," he told party workers.

Kharge concurred with Gandhi's views on an alliance, and said the party would work in line with its workers' suggestions on the matter. All opposition parties, he said, should contest elections together in Jammu & Kashmir.

"We (Opposition parties) fought together in the past, and got success. You have seen that the opposition bloc stopped a dictator to come to power with absolute majority," Kharge said.

Elections for 90 Assembly constituencies in Jammu & Kashmir will be held in three phases, from Sept 18 to Oct 1. This will be the first Assembly elections after the bifurcation of Jammu & Kashmir into two Union territories – Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh – and the abrogation of special status in 2019. The last Assembly elections in Jammu & Kashmir were held in 2014, and the outcome was a hung Assembly.

The Congress party has been in talks with the National Conference for a pre-poll alliance, and party leaders say seat-sharing talks have already been initiated. The party's newly appointed local unit president, Tariq Hameed Karra, had on Monday said the party wants to forge an electoral alliance with like-minded political parties, including the National Conference and the People's Democratic Party.  End

Reported by Kuldeep Singh

Edited by Avishek Dutta

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